Tag
by Rain Seaker
Summary: Prompt Response. Oneshot. Naruto is jounin sensi of Team 8.


Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or even the premise for this story.

This is a response to a prompt by idiot. of .wanderlust, who won it by being the 500th review to my story - The Snake and the Spider.

Prompt: Naruto sensei. Meaning, either Naruto is some child prodigy elite, or he is older, and becomes jounin sensei for some team involving the rookie 9 (any configuration of characters will work)

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**Tag**

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"Aww, come on Old Man. Do I _really _have to?" Naruto retightened his hitai-ate and glared at the wrinkly old man in from of him.

"Yes, it is an unfortunate necessity. Kurenai was the next slotted instructor, but we received a long term mission request and she was the only person with the adequate skill sets to complete it. The other jounins are either already on a mission or receiving their own students. The only other people with the correct level to take on a genin team are ANBU and they..."

"I would like to turn in an immediate transfer request to ANBU." Naruto said with a straight faced grin.

"Denied." The Hokage growled out. "I realize that this isn't an ideal mission..."

"Ideal? HA! Even the best genin team takes at least a year to fully train up, some can take up to five. I just became jounin not even six months ago, you really want to bench me so soon? I can't take the same level missions with these _kids_ following me around." Naruto glared at the scroll he had been given again, as if it had personally offended him.

Sarutobi-sama sighed and rubbed his eyes a little, reminding Naruto just how old he was for a second. Naruto's shoulders slumped a little, this wasn't a fight he was going to win.

"Fine." Naruto forced the acceptance past his lips, but didn't look at the Hokage as he said it. "But don't expect me to pass them. Stop using that look on me too, you cheater."

The smug grin was resting on the Old Man's face and Naruto resisted the urge to glare at him again.

Before anything else could be said, a puff of smoke and leafs appeared next to Naruto and Hatake Kakashi was in the room. Kakashi's one visible eye took in the room and the scroll that Naruto had clenched in one of his hands. The mocking laughter entered his eye and Naruto knew that he was laughing at his bad luck.

Naruto couldn't resist the urge to pull down one of his eyelids and stick out his tongue at the man.

The laughter didn't go away as he turned to the Hokage.

"You requested me Hokage-sama."

Old Man had laughter in his eyes and a grin on his face as he picked up another scroll on his desk, one identical to the one that Naruto was carrying. Kakashi's eye widened in horror and he disappeared from Naruto's side. He reappeared in front of the window - the window that was being blocked by Sarutobi's grinning face and hand on Kakashi's arm.

"I am so pleased with your prompt acceptance with your mission, but you seem to have forgotten your mission scroll."The Old Man continued smiling as he forced the scroll into one of Kakashi's pockets. "I'm do hope that you will find this team up to your standards." His sharp gaze focused on Kakashi long enough for the white haired jounin to nod frantically and Naruto was reminded just why Sarutobi-sama was still the Hokage. "I do hope you won't be too late to meeting them."

The Old Man was still smiling as he released Kakashi's arm and the masked jounin exited as quickly as he could. His sharp gaze turned back to Naruto and Naruto raised his arms in surrender.

"You got me, I won't torture the lowly genin's." Naruto coughed under his breath, "too much."

Sarutobi-sama nodded and sat back down in front of his paperwork.

"You are excused Naruto. I expect you to pick up the genin team later today and give them their test." The Hokage bent down over the paperwork again. Being around the Hokage this much was definitely causing Naruto to reconsider his dream, it looked like an awful lot of deskwork.

Naruto turned to leave when the Hokage spoke up again.

"Naruto, the genin's that you are testing might be the same age as you, but they don't have to same skills. Do try and remember that."

Naruto nodded and, with a puff of chakra smoke, he was gone.

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Naruto sat himself on one of the swings in the empty playground. He pushed off with his feet and opened the scroll, looking over the information inside.

"So, let's see who we got." Naruto's eyes flicked over the student files and pictures.

Aburame Shino was part of the bug users clan and seemed from his academy rankings to rather intelligent. All of the Academy's teachers notes on him seemed to be about his rather introverted and silent nature. Naruto flicked through all of the information he had on the Aburame clan's abilities. Their bug nests were inserted into them at birth and they were brought up on how to use them. If Naruto remembered correctly they were also rather protective of their nests. He noted this in his mind and went to the next member on his list.

Inuzuka Kiba and Akamaru were a two person team onto themselves. The Inuzuka clan were very protective of their pack and worked better in teams than by themselves. They were more fitted to synchronization attacks than one on one. Naruto noted this down. The Academy instructors said that he liked to skip class and was generally a loud annoyance which was painfully obvious from his ranking. They had also noted that his father had abandoned his family when Kiba was younger. Naruto swung a little higher on the swing and looked upwards. He could be trouble his Naruto couldn't get his tendancy to ran into situations without thinking it through under control.

Naruto's eyes trailed down the page to the last genin.

Hyuga Hinata was the eldest daughter of the Hyuga clan leader, but her younger sister had been named heiress instead of her. Naruto remembered when that news had found its way to him almost three years ago. He had been in the middle of a solo mission in Tea Country when he heard the news, which told him just how important it was. After her attempted kidnapping and the subsequent death of the clan leader's brother the girl had never been the same.

Naruto sighed a little, it seemed like most of his time would have to be spent on building up her confidence and getting her away from her family. Naruto thought of all the Hyuga clan techniques that he knew and sighed, he didn't know enough. He would have to find her a suitable teacher for her Byakugan training.

Naruto shook his head, he shouldn't be making plans when he wasn't even planning on passing them.

He stared at the scroll again with a groan, all three of these genin were well known clan members, there would be no way he would be allowed to fail them.

He had just tucked the scroll away again when he heard a loud voice entering the playground.

"I don't get it, why would our sensei what to meet us here of all places? All of the other teams got to go to their training grounds." That must have been Inuzuka Kiba, the loud one.

"Kiba-kun, he...or she...must have had a good reason." Hyuga Hinata, the nervous one.

"We should be prepared for the second test at any time." Aburame Shino, the quiet one. "Why?" He seemed to cut off Inuzuka's response. "Because Iruka told us that there would be a second test and then he informed us to meet here, in a playground. Sensei must have a reason for this and is probably testing to see how we do in unfamiliar situations."

For the quiet one he seemed to be talking a lot. Naruto shrugged to himself and pulled off his forehead protector before the trio came into view.

When he had learned of his team he immediately recognized they would make a fantastic tracking team. The Inuzuka and the Aburame had clan skills that would be useful to that purpose and the Hyuga girl's eyes would be invaluable. Which meant he knew a perfect test for them.

Naruto wasted no time in jumping off the swing when it was at its peak, enjoying the fall down.

He smiled when he saw the surprised looks on the genin's faces as he fell in front of them.

"Hiya there!" Naruto smiled at the trio. "Never seen you here before."

Inuzuka was apparently the first to get over his shock in time to answer. "None of your business little kid." He said smugly. "We are on official shinobi business."

"No way." Naruto gasped to him with wide eyes.

"Yes way." Inuzuka puffed up with importance. "We are newly minted genins."

Naruto shook his head in disbelief. "No way man. There is no way that a nobody like you could be a genin."

"Yes, we are." Inuzuka growled at him.

"No, you're not."

"Yes, _we _are."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"YES!" Inuzuka seemed fed up and even his dog started barking in agreement.

"Kiba-kun..." Hyuga tried to cut in to no use.

"Come one Hinata, let's teach this snot-nosed kid a lesson." Inuzuka pushed up his sleeves a little.

"It would be a mistake to beat up a civilian while waiting for our team sensei to show up." Aburame said stoically.

"Shut up, Shino."

Naruto turned his attention to the Aburame. "Nice glasses!"

"Thank you." Aburame gave a short nod to him, but continued looking around the playground, no doubt looking for the jounin that was supposed to show up. Naruto suppressed a grin.

"I think I'll take them." Naruto moved faster than they could react and tugged the glasses from Aburame's face in a single move. He placed them on his face with a grin. "How do I look?"

Aburame's shocked face reflected those of his teammates. Inuzuka appeared to be staring in silent surprise as he saw Aburame's expressive green eyes. Naruto had no doubt this was the first time any of his classmates had seen Aburame's eyes. Hyuga's eyes were flickering in shocker horror between Aburame and Naruto, as if it was somehow all her fault.

Aburame placed his emotionless mask back in place, somewhat less effective when he could see the swirl of emotions in his eyes, no wonder they all wore sunglasses if their eyes were like that.

"Civilian-kun, please return my glasses."

Naruto stuck out his tongue at him.

"Nope. I think I'm going to keep them, they look better on me anyway." He smiled at them. "Hey! Let's play a game. I bet you can't catch me, if you can I'll give you back your glasses." He blew a raspberry at them and darted forward to poke Inuzuka and Aburame in the head before hoping away.

"Kiba-kun, Shino-kun, I think we should wait..." Naruto darted forward again and grabbed her hitai-ate off her neck.

"There, now you have a reason to play." Naruto smiled at her with the forehead protector in one hand. The Hyuga looked like she was about to cry so Naruto darted forward and poked her in the head. "None of that now, we are playing a game." He hoped backward and started running at a slower pace than usual, just enough to out run them. "You're it! Catch me if you can."

Naruto disappeared in the forest behind the playground with a dash. He barely threw up half of a hand sign before he was surrounded by five shadow clones.

"You know what to do. Make them work for it." Naruto told them quickly as he dashed up a tree, the perfect spot to view the entire test from.

"You got it boss." The clones spoke in sync, saluted and then ran away.

It took a minute before they gathered themselves enough to enter the forest as far as he could tell. Inuzuka ran in first with his dog at his heels.

"Don't worry Hinata-chan, Shino. Me and Akamaru will get this kid for you. We'll be back before sensei even shows up." Naruto grinned at the overconfident boy. It would be easy to fail them if the Inuzuka continued to run off on his own.

The Hyuga and Aburame entered the forest at a slightly less enthused run.

"Shino-kun, I am sorry about your glasses." Hyuga spoke softly. Aburame turned to her with somewhat inquisitive surprise.

"It was no fault of yours." He shrugged and flung of his arms a little. A rush of bugs escaped his long sleeves and Naruto was pleased to see that the Hyuga girl didn't flinch away from him. "Find my glasses." The boy spoke to his bugs as they disappeared into the forest.

The bugs wouldn't find Naruto, of course, he had known how to hide his chakra signature from their bugs since he was seven and went on a mission with one of the lesser clan members. They would find his clones though, he made sure of that.

He followed them through the forest in silence until they reached the Inuzuka starting despondently in the middle of a clearing. The same clearing where Naruto's clones had split off into different directions.

"What's wrong Kiba-kun."

"There is a fork in the road." He responded softly staring at Akamaru who was following one path and then turning around and following another. "We don't know which one to follow."

Aburame stayed silent and Hyuga seemed to be having a battle with herself before she spoke up.

"I can...help...with that." She said in the softest possible tone." Inuzuka turned to her with excitement.

"Of course! You can do Byakugan right? Do it!" Inuzuka turned to her expectantly. Hyuga stepped away from the enthusiastic boy, not used to the attention. No doubt she had probably been told by her family that she was useless with the ability.

"Oh...okay." She said softly and turned back to the clearing. She made a hand seal and said a soft, "Byakugan." The veins that puffed up around her eyes and the slight pupils you could see showed that the kekkei genkai was working.

She nervously pointed down one of the paths. "That one has the most chakra, meaning he probably went down that way. Inuzuka threw a fist into the arm and grinned at her.

"Great job, Hinata-chan." The dog barked in agreement. "We'll just..."

"We should stick together for the remainder of this game." Aburame spoke up causing Hyuga and Inuzuka to turn to him confused. "A civilian child with a visible chakra path is unusal."

Inuzuka didn't seem to understand and shrugged. "Don't worry Shino, no snot-nosed civilian can fool Akamaru's nose." - the dog barked. Inuzuka raced down the path again, Hyuga and Aburame shook their heads but followed.

This was where the rest of the test came in. Naruto had lined the path with small traps. Nothing big, but enough to cause embarrassment if they got caught up in them. They were approaching the first one when Aburame called up.

"Stop." Inuzuka turned to him in surprise.

"What is it Shino?"

"There is a trip line in front of you." Aburame said stoically ignoring the shock on Inuzuka's face. "It seems to be attached to a paint can on that limb." He pointed to a nearby tree and Naruto almost groaned. I seemed he would have to pass them now. "Hinata-chan, I believe it would be appropriate to use Byakugan again in case you spot any traps that I miss."

Hyuga stared at him in shock, surprised at being requested to do something. She swallowed and nodded. "Of course, Shino-kun."

They started walking again, Inuzuka in the lead followed by Hyuga and Aburame who pointed out any traps that lined the way.

Naruto even spotted as a tiny bug crawled up each Hyuga's and Inuzuka's clothes. It appeared that his bugs weren't the only thing that Aburame was protective over.

They had one small mishap when Akamura tumbled into a hidden pit, but Aburame's bug helped pull him out and Inuzuka healed him up again.

It was almost an hour later when the three dirty, sweaty, and tired genins tumbled into a clearing where Naruto's clone sat.

"What took you so long, doofuses. Now I know there is no way you can be shinobi, just look how long that took you." Naruto's clone said snidely.

"Now, look here you little twerp." Inuzuka apparently had enough energy to stomp forward and grab the front of Naruto-clone's shirt, but didn't get much further than that.

Poof.

A small puff of chakra smoke and the clone was gone. Inuzuka was staring at the empty space in front of him in shock.

"Wha..."

Naruto decided that was enough torture for one day and hopped off the tree. He appeared behind Aburame and Hyuga. He started cleaning out his ear to appear bored.

"Hmm, took you long enough, but I suppose we can work on that."

The three genins spun around to look at him in shock.

"What?" Inuzuka appeared to focus again and his face turned hostile. "Just who do you think you are, messing with... UMF"

He was cut off when his back hit the ground with a loud thump. Naruto crouched over him, whiskers wider than before and sharpened teeth bared to Inuzuka with a growl.

Inuzuka's widened eyes didn't seem to understand the position he was in because it took five minutes of silence before Akamaru whimpered and drew him out of it. Inuzuka struggled lightly and tried to get out of the position before Naruto growled at him again. It took Inuzuka another minute before he finally understood.

He sagged a little and relaxed on the ground. His head tilted upwards and to the side, baring his throat in surrender to Naruto.

Naruto grinned at the boy and hopped off of him.

"Now that that's settled I think we can move onto other things." It was imperative when an Inuzuka was on your squad to show him who was alpha as quickly as possible. If they didn't spot an obvious alpha they would try to take over the position themselves, even if they weren't suited for it, and generally cause problems for the normal heirarchy of things. That was something he had learned from Kakashi-sensei back when he was nine.

"Um...excuse me..." Hyuga spoke up a little.

"Right, of course." Naruto tossed her back her hitai-ate and threw the sunglasses back to Aburame. He pulled his own hitai-ate from his pocket and tied it around his head again. "I think I forgot to introduce myself, didn't I?" Naruto smiled a little. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I am your jounin sensei."

"Welcome to Team 8."

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AN: I hope you all enjoyed it, especially idiot. of .wanderlust because I wrote it for him. Review or don't.

~Rain


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